U.S. plans tougher rules for blowout preventers on wells

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Updated 8:19 pm, Tuesday, May 22, 2012

WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials on Tuesday outlined plans for new rules designed to boost the reliability and power of emergency equipment that safeguard offshore wells, two years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster revealed shortcomings in the devices.

The mandates, set to be proposed by September, focus on the hulking blowout preventers that sit on the wellhead as a last line of defense against surging oil and gas. During an emergency, shearing and sealing rams in the devices can be activated to cut drill pipe and to block off the well hole.

But a forensic examination of the blowout preventer brought up from BP's failed Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico showed that device was unable to slash through a piece of drill pipe that had buckled and had been pushed off center.

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The investigation revealed issues that are not unique to BP's operation, Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said at a government forum to help regulators craft the new mandates.

Hayes signaled the rules would require stiffer maintenance of blowout preventers, or BOPs; stronger training for the people operating them; and “better sensors to tell us what is happening at the bottom of the sea.”

“BOPs need to be able to cut whatever is in their way and completely seal off the well,” Hayes said.

That could mean a big redesign for the devices, which have been used to safeguard onshore and subsea wells since the 1920s. For instance, blowout preventers today generally can't shear tool joints, the thick connections between pieces of drill pipe, although GE Oil and Gas and other manufacturers are rolling out new designs that promise that capability.

“The industry responds to forensic information that is given to us,” said Chuck Chauviere, GE Oil and Gas' general manager of drilling. “We are improving what the capabilities of the equipment are.”

Roger McCarthy, a member of the National Academy of Engineering panel that probed the Deepwater Horizon disaster, said a new blowout preventer rule should ensure the devices would at least have been able to halt the gushing oil and gas at Macondo, he said.

“We don't want to fight the last war,” McCarthy said. “But let's remember, we lost the last war. So, at a minimum, we should be able to anticipate with our current design recommendations and incorporate in them all the history we have paid so dearly for by not being prepared for the last disasters.”

Industry representatives pleaded with federal regulators to include specific performance standards in any new rule while leaving enough room for innovation to meet those requirements.

“Tell us what you want and let us figure out how we do it,” said Moe Plaisance, the vice president of governmental and industry affairs for the drilling contractor Diamond Offshore. “We want to be part of the solution.”

Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director James Watson said the agency would be considering a phase-in period as part of any new rule to allow time for manufacturers to redesign the devices to meet new standards and to get the equipment to the marketplace.